New terror group in Malaysia 'ready to hit Western targets'

MALAYSIA - With Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia (KMM) effectively neutralised and unable to carry out their operations, this new organisation had "borrowed" the two terror groups' playbook and revisited their foiled elaborate plans of attacks and was ready to carry them out.

Sources close to the on-going investigations told the New Straits Times that the new terror group was not averse to using violence to fight secularism.

Among the targets in the group's strike folders were foreign embassies, as well as entertainment outlets and places frequented by Westerners.

"Their script is not much different (from JI and KMM)... Most of the places they were planning to attack were similar to those planned by the two terror groups," one of the sources said.

JI had planned to simultaneously bomb the US embassy and another building in Singapore where its business interests were located at the end of 2001. An Arab suicide bomber had been tasked with the job, using six lorries packed with 17 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. Fortunately, that attempt was thwarted.

Also on their target list were several entertainment outlets in Thailand popular with Americans. These plans were foiled, however.

Unfortunately, on Oct 12, 2002, JI's plan to create chaos and bloodbath came to deadly effect in the Bali bombings.

The plan was formalised in August 2002 and was perfectly executed. It called for a series of three explosions in the heart of the tourist district of Kuta.

The first of three massive explosions ripped through the district packed with revellers at 11.08pm. In all, 202 people were killed, most of them Australians.